Abby Phillip Talks CNN ‘NewsNight’ And Addresses Skeptics Of The Media

While continuing to anchor the news desk on primetime television every weeknight on CNN, Abby Phillip has become one of the top news personalities in the media today. Previously a journalist for The Washington Post, ABC News and Politico, Phillip, 35, has worked her way up to anchor CNN’s NewsNight with Abby Phillip, leading diverse round table discussions with people from various backgrounds and political affiliations, as they collectively discuss the very latest surrounding the U.S. presidential election, conflicts happening overseas, sports and more.

I sat down with Phillip at her CNN office in New York City to get to know the hardworking media journalist and everyday human being, beyond what we get to see on television.

Jeff Conway: Abby, can you share with me the notable moments, choices and events from your upbringing in Bowie, Maryland and beyond that molded you into the journalist and truth seeker that you are today at CNN?

Abby Phillip: Well, I think it all starts with my parents. I think most of us can probably say that, but my parents immigrated to the U.S. [from Trinidad] when they were in their twenties. My dad came up to finish his studies, and like most immigrant families, that is the fateful decision that your family makes that really changes the trajectory of your life. I was born here [in the U.S.] but I lived in Trinidad after I was born for about 9 years. So, then I came back to the U.S. and I think that experience of living in two completely different places, having the exposure to different cultures and different perspectives – that’s fundamentally at the core of who I am – just wanting to understand people and wanting to be open to differences.

My family is also pretty informed. There are a lot of political discussions at the dinner table at Thanksgiving and Christmas and other holidays – so, I grew up around lively discussion and debate. I can’t say that I always wanted to be a journalist because I really didn’t discover journalism until I was in college, but when I was in college, I realized that all of those experiences as a child and just always having to figure out how to hold my own in conversations at the dinner table, disagreeing with my dad or my sisters – I’m one of six kids – a lot of kids in my family – and then also at the same time, having those disagreements and being able to still love your family members and continue on with your life. All those experiences, I think, led me to journalism – led me to want to be involved in public life in this particular way – and so, that’s kind of the long-short of it all.

Conway: Abby, you joined CNN in 2017 to cover the Trump Administration at that time and also served as a White House Correspondent through 2019. Since your experiences and work in those roles up until now as the anchor of NewsNight with Abby Phillip, how would you describe any and all shifts that you have noticed within our nation’s political landscape?

Phillip: I think this has been a long period of actually a fair amount of structural shifts in our politics. It’s an important time to be in journalism and it’s important time for media because whenever you have these big structural shifts in how the country aligns itself, politically – things are unsettled for a long time and that became really clear to me. I mean, I covered 2016 – I was covering Hillary Clinton at the time and it was very clear to me that we were just at the beginning, not at the end, of that process, in which we have to re-think who aligns with what political party. That calls for a lot of humility, honestly. It calls for a lot of openness – it calls for a lot of uncomfortable conversations.

Conway: How and when did the opportunity to anchor NewsNight come about for you, Abby?

Phillip: The show was created almost a year ago. So, around this time, CNN had announced that I would be hosting the 10 o’clock hour – and so, it became NewsNight.

NewsNight is kind of legacy CNN franchise that we sort of tapped into with the name of the show, but the show started in literally the first couple days after [the Hamas-led attacks in Israel on] October 7, so it was a really heavy news environment – I mean, heavy in all the different ways, in terms of the subject matter, in terms of how much news there was. So, the show at that time and for most of the time that we’ve been doing it – maybe the first seven or eight months – has been a news show covering world events, covering domestic events – covering a lot of politics, even culture.

I think that has always been kind of true to what – who I am as a journalist is that first, I am a journalist. I started covering politics – I know that really well – my first job was at Politico, so that is really at the foundation of my training as a journalist, but we have covered all kinds of different topics. We also particularly tried to make room for these sort of important cultural conversations about what’s happening in the country in sports, in media and in all these different areas.

More recently, in July, right after the RNC, we sort of relaunched to lead up to the election as NewsNight State of the Race, which is really focused on politics, predominantly. That version of the show is just a big conversation for an hour, usually with the same group of four or five people. We kind of go deep on what’s happening in the news, on all the different perspectives – and that version of the show, I think, really has resonated with these unprecedented times because people need a place to de-brief it all and we’ve been giving that to them.

And so, NewsNight has evolved – is evolving – to meet the needs of the news cycle and of the audience, and it’s been really fun to kind of do all these different things. I like having range as a journalist – it keeps things interesting for me.

Conway: Abby, as you know, there are many news programs on broadcast, cable and video streaming outlets today, but what maybe makes NewsNight different within this news media landscape today that you have the most pride about?

Phillip: I think right now, what NewsNight is doing is really putting the country at the table in a way. We always talk about how divided the country is – how polarized we are – and we put those different viewpoints at the same table and ask them to talk to each other. I’m not saying that there are never different viewpoints on TV and other platforms, but I think that you really emphasize the conversation at the table. People really addressing each other directly, having human moments, asking each other questions – sometimes really showing emotion – and I think that to me is one of the most unique parts of what we do.

I tell people when they come on the show, I’m like – I don’t want to be too in the conversation. I want you all to talk to each other. Sometimes, I come a part of that conversation but my goal is not to be asking you questions. My goal is to let you guys talk. I might probe on certain things or ask certain questions to get us at something that is underneath the surface, but I don’t want to be the driving force of the conversation. I want the sort of differences among you, and the commonalities – which sometimes are found at the table, to drive what’s special about the show.

Conway: With the U.S. presidential election a month away, how are you going to make sure that you keep a diverse and balanced conversation, Abby, but also hold people accountable when they need to be held accountable?

Phillip: We can’t have a balanced conversation, or any conversation, if you’re not talking about things that are true. So, that is a huge part of what I do at the table, is try to anticipate what’s going to be said and knowing what the truth of the matter is because I don’t want us going down a conversation that’s based off of falsehoods. So, we start there.

Conway: I’m sure you see it too, Abby, that there are some news makers in the world that use their elevated platform to build a celebrity-like brand for themselves through social media. So, how do you keep it to the news and the integrity of journalism as your priority?

Phillip: Well, I mean, I’m busy working! I don’t even know how else to put it. I have a job and this is my job. I didn’t become a journalist to be a well-known person, honestly. I started out in print, partly because I liked the anonymity of it.

With social media, I think that there’s a personal element of my life that people will see on Instagram and that’s as much about me just being a regular human being than it is about anything else. I still use Instagram to actually connect with my real friends, real people – in addition to many, many others. It’s fine to use your platform for people to get to know you in other ways, but the goal is not to make yourself more famous – at least using social media. That’s how I see it, but Twitter/X in particular, people go there to see what is happening, what is the news. I think, increasingly, it’s been really difficult for people to navigate what is true and what is false on the platform, so I am very careful not to do too much on there, unless it’s really adding to the truthful information that exists.

Conway: Abby, on your X/Twitter page, you share the headline, “Mom, rule breaker, anchor of CNN Newsnight with Abby Phillip at 10pm ET” – so, beyond what we get to see on TV, how would describe yourself to people who don’t see you after the cameras turn off? Who is Abby Phillip beyond the news desk?

Phillip: Well, I’m a pretty big introvert – so, there’s that but you’d be surprised how many introverts are in TV and in media – there’s a lot of us. I spend a lot of my outgoing time doing my job, so when I’m not doing my job, I’m kind of a homebody. I spend time with my family, I spend a lot of time cooking to decompress or baking and doing things like that, but I like experiment – to do new things. When I say “rule breaker,” it’s kind of an inside joke because my husband makes fun of me because I’m the person who throws the instruction manual out the window. I’ll just like figure it out!

I think probably the thing that drives my personality the most is that I like to create a sense of calm and peace around my personal life because I spend so much of my professional life in a very unpredictable world. So, when I’m home, I spend time doing things with my family in my home.

Conway: So Abby, back to NewsNight. What do you hope it becomes in the weeks, months and hopefully years to come? What parts of it do you feel are working and what are the parts that you want this to evolve into at NewsNight?

Phillip: I want NewsNight to become maybe the most interesting hour on television, where people are always going to get an interesting, unexpected conversation. I hope that we can, even in a time when there’s a lot of concentrated political news right now, I hope we can kind of find interesting ways to even evolve that into other arenas of conversation. So, that’s just the thought at the moment, but that’s something that’s intriguing to me.

I just want it to be interesting and I think it is really interesting now and it will continue to be more interesting as more people get to know the show and we are able to bring more interesting voices to the table. A year ago, we were covering a war, so things have really changed in that year and will continue to change, and the key for longevity in television is to be able to adapt and my hope is always just to be able to adapt to whatever comes our way and be able to meet the needs of our viewers as we go along.

Conway: As journalists in the media right now, we are often, arguably more than ever before, criticized and/or questioned on whether what we are sharing is legit and credible. So, what do you want to say to skeptics out there, Abby?

Phillip: I think it’s okay to be skeptical. In fact, I would encourage it. I think that to be a smart news consumer, you should be questioning most of what you read and hear, even from us – CNN or wherever else you get your news. It’s on us to show our work – to bring people along with us with facts. So, if I tell you something, it’s on me to back that up with factual information – and if you don’t get that, it’s perfectly legitimate and acceptable for you to say, I don’t know if I believe that because that’s how I live my life. I mean, when I read things on the internet, 99% of the time I do not believe it and I go look for other corroboration of that information because it’s too difficult out there these days for people to just take things at face value.

In fact, if people spent more time looking just a little bit deeper, I think we would actually be better off. I don’t want people blindly consuming information. We’re just not in that information ecosystem anymore, so I understand the skepticism, but I also think that people should be aware that when there are sources out there that are playing on your anger or your fear or hatred, those people are trying to take advantage of those emotions and not trying to inform you. So, it’s especially important when those types of emotions are at play, for people to take a beat and dig a little deeper for more as they’re searching for information.

This is a really difficult media landscape and I am very, very sympathetic to consumers of information because I’m a producer of the news and I have a hard time navigating this. We just need a little bit of empathy, actually, for people that are out there. Skepticism is normal and it’s actually healthy, but those of us who think of ourselves as trying to do our level-best to give people the facts, we need to double down on showing our work to people, so that we can earn their trust. I think about that all time and I think that’s going to be, going forward – the next five years – the next ten years – that’s going to be where the major challenge lies, when it comes to legacy media organizations retaining their credibility in an over-saturated information landscape.

Conway: Lastly Abby, if you could go back to the Abby Phillip who was studying at Harvard University and could give her advice, a warning or a comforting message, after everything you have achieved for yourself up until now, what would you say to that Abby, that maybe she needed to hear back then?

Phillip: There is no one way to be a good journalist and there are a lot of different ways that this work can be done and a lot of different ways that people can get value from journalists. It’s okay to not be like everyone else. It’s okay to be your own person. Find the things that you’re good at, double down on those things and then keep going. That’s it.